It is no secret we are fans of STABILO products. Both my kids have used the STABILO 3-in-1 pencils and the easycolour pencils and both kids love them. So when I heard STABILO have some pens designed for use when you are out and about I could not resist testing them out. STABILO kindly sent us a set of the Cappi pens to use in our home learning and I have to say we are now fans of these pens aswell.

The pens have been specially designed with caps that allow you to thread a loop through them (they call it a cap ring) which links all the pens together. This hopefully means there will be less chance of the kids leaving their pens behind or losing them while they are out. And as I found my kids were a lot more aware of the fact that they had not put the pen back in its cap once they had finished using it as they would see the empty cap on the ring when they went to get another pen.

My kids enjoy taking activities out with us when we go on our walks (they enjoy a good nature / colour hunt, anything really that involves them walking around with a clipboard and ticking boxes or making notes on the clipboard) which is why I was so keen to test these pens out.

We actually found that the plastic cord, which comes with the pens, is perfect for attaching them to the back of my backpack. This way the kids can grab a pen without me having to take the backpack off and unpack a pencil-case etc. For us this is a perfect solution for all our clipboard activities.

And then when the kids want to sit down and use the pens on the ground all we do is unhook the link. Super easy.

But apart from being great pens to use out of the house the pens themselves are really nice pens. I love the ergonomic grips. After watching my youngest use the pens on multiple occasions I could see that he always ended up holding the pens correctly (his pencil grip has been something we have been working on). Both kids fingers naturally rest in the correct position on the grips, I have never once had to remind or correct my youngest (the website does say the pens are for kids 6 years and over and my youngest is 5).

The pens also do not roll off tables (which is a real bonus if the kids are using them out at a coffee shop while I am trying to drink a much-needed cup of caffeine)

The colours are really vibrant and apparently you can leave the pens uncapped for 24 hours without them drying out – we DID NOT test out the 24 hour without a cap as we really like the pens and did not want to wast them.

Also my youngest is quite good at getting ink all over himself when he is “creating an art work” and with these pens it always comes off very easily (also wiped off our plastic table).

All three of us think these pens are great and I have no doubt my “clipboard happy kiddies” will be using them over and over again when we are out exploring.

The STABILO Cappi pens were given us by STABILO but I was not paid for this review. Also the Basic Transport Template shown in the photo above is from the Twinkl website and it is Free to download